What's in a Name
by pressontoknow
Summary: A two-part story that continues the tale of Maisie, Lincoln, and Margo from the movie "What Maisie Knew".
1. Part 1

Part 1

Today is her seventh birthday.

After Maisie, Lincoln, and Margo left the house by the beach they moved into a rundown apartment in Queens, the only one they could afford that had two bedrooms and wouldn't need to be remodeled before they could live in it. It's on the third floor, with a tiny balcony off the master bedroom that they can all stand on if they squeeze together. If Lincoln stretches his arm out as far as he can he can touch the wall of the opposite building.

Margo's working part time as a nanny for a family with a baby boy, and Lincoln got a new job as a chef's assistant in a popular Italian restaurant. He takes the subway early on the mornings he has two classes before his shift starts, and there are also classes to take at night. He finished his junior year before he dropped out of college, so he's hoping to finish his degree within a year or two. He and Margo both have Sundays and Mondays off, so they try to schedule most of the court dates on Mondays so they won't have to take much time off. Beale has no problem handing his daughter off to them, and they rush through divorces and a court wedding so it'll look better to the judge. Maisie grins the whole five steps down the court aisle as she daintily scatters rose petals.

Now that Susanna has seen that Maisie is happy with Lincoln and Margo she's willing to let them have primary custody, though they both count it a miracle when she actually agrees to it in court. The next day she calls Lincoln's phone screaming and crying at them for taking away her baby, and he knows he's not through with her yet.

But Maisie and Margo are happy, and he is too. After all the screaming and fighting of previous marriages, it's nice to have more laughter, more kissing, more happiness.

Today she's seven.

It's a Sunday, so he promises that they'll spend the whole day together. She comes running into their bedroom just as he's decided to kiss Margo awake, shrieking for them to get _up_, it's her _birthday_! He gives Margo a peck on the nose instead and goes to take a shower.

They make pancakes with M&Ms and put a candle in Maisie's so they can sing happy birthday. When Margo tells her to make a wish Maisie gets a sad look on her face and Lincoln kneels down next to her. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

She shakes her head quickly and he brushes her bangs out of her eyes. "It's nothing," she whispers, and blows out her candle.

He forgets all about it as they spend the day together, playing at the park and going to Chinatown to buy a playmate for Jonah, the turtle. They eat lunch at a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant and Margo makes squinty, anxious eyes at him as she worries about food poisoning. He laughs as he presses a kiss to her cheek, keeping a hand on her thigh as Maisie tells them about how she's really good at using chopsticks.

In the afternoon they go to the zoo, where Maisie introduces the new turtle, Josephine, to all her distant cousins that live in the pond. Lincoln takes the opportunity to press Margo up against a tree and kiss her long and hard until she blushes and smiles reluctantly at him as he pulls away.

They're still in the honeymoon stage, having finally realized they love each other and gotten married—the stage where they spend pretty much all of Monday in bed after Maisie goes to school, and have to run to pick her up; when the world is a little brighter around the edges with love and happiness and a_ family_.

They rush home so Margo can run out to the store and get a cake mix that she didn't have a chance to pick up yesterday. Lincoln and Maisie sit by the coffee table in the living room. They're making a new moat, a much more elaborate one that has to be planned out first with a long list of dangerous animals, when Lincoln remembers that moment from this morning at breakfast. "Hey, Maze?" he asks as he draws the chains that will hold the drawbridge up.

"Mmm?" she answers, adding _wolf_ to the list of scary creatures.

"Were you sad this morning at breakfast?" he asks, sitting back and making sure he holds her eyes as she looks at him.

She quirks her lips and shrugs, bending over to focus on the very careful coloring of a large green alligator.

"Come on, Maisie," Lincoln prods gently, "why were you sad?"

She sighs and looks at him hesitantly before shrugging again and saying very softly, so he has to lean in to hear, "I don't like calling you Lincoln anymore."

He frowns. "What else would you call me?"

She huffs at him, obviously frustrated she has to explain herself. "Daddy maybe, but I think my other daddy would be sad if I did… And I don't think there are any other words like that."

He swallows hard as his heart skips a beat and squeezes painfully as he realizes anew just how much he loves this little girl, just as much as if he'd held her when she was a newborn baby and helped pick out her name. "Umm…is Dad too close to Daddy?"

Maisie frowns and nods very seriously.

"Well," he wracks his brain, trying to think of something, _anything_ that she can call him because he wants her to see him as her father who will never, ever leave her and will always, always love her. "What about Papa?"

She cocks her head and considers this for a moment. "And could I call Margo Mama? It's not too close to Mommy, I don't think."

Tears are stinging his eyes and he has to blink hard to get rid of them. "I think that would make her really happy."

She grins at him, apparently satisfied, and turns suddenly as they hear the door unlocking and Margo rushes into the kitchen all loaded down with bags. Maisie stands very slowly, taking several hesitant steps toward the kitchen, and Lincoln can't help but let one tear escape as she says very softly, "Mama?"

Margo stills and doesn't turn around for a moment, instead setting the grocery bags very carefully on the counter. Lincoln can see her eyes shining as she turns toward their daughter. "What is it, Maze?" she asks very shakily, with a hesitant smile.

Lincoln moves a hand to cover his mouth as Maisie gives her mother a shy smile. "Mama," she says again, "did you get the strawberry cake mix?"

Margo nods and kneels in front of Maisie, gently pulling her into her arms. "Yes, sweetheart," she whispers. "I missed you."

After a long moment Maisie pulls away and turns toward Lincoln. "Papa and me are drawing a new moat," she informs Margo enthusiastically.

Lincoln doesn't miss the tears wetting Margo's cheeks as Maisie calls him by a new name, and as he looks at his girls, his _family_, he thinks things couldn't be better.


	2. Part 2

Part 2

And maybe that line of thinking jinxes them, because the next couple of weeks are hell. He and Margo have a miscommunication and no one's there to pick Maisie up from school, leading to several angry phone calls from Susanna threatening to take her daughter away from them forever. He's stressed from finals and the family Margo nannies for is out of town for two weeks so they're late on the rent.

Except for the time Maisie had to stay late after school, they're able to keep their problems from her. She's gone through more than enough for a child her age. He and Margo both know that their prerogative needs to be providing her with a stable, loving home where she feels safe.

Three weeks after Maisie's birthday they spend Monday morning being lazy and making out and reminding each other that they _are_ in love. But that afternoon, after picking Maisie up from school, he comes home to find Margo livid after a heated phone conversation with Susanna, and a notice from her nannying family that they'll be gone another week, and they're back to where they started.

He puts Maisie to bed early and he and Margo spend the evening fighting quietly in the living room, so much miscommunication and unnecessarily harsh words and cutting remarks. He's _this close_ to walking out that door, but instead he sits hard on the couch, putting his head in his hands as she goes angrily to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"Daddy?"

He lifts his head quickly to see her peeking around her bedroom doorframe, her thin nightgown barely reaching her knees and fear in her eyes.

She's never called him Daddy before.

He doesn't know what to say, and she glances wildly around the room. "Dad—Lincoln, where's Margo?!"

"I'm right here, Maze," Margo calls out as she rushes into the room. Maisie meets her halfway there and Lincoln joins them on the floor next to the coffee table as Maisie holds Margo's neck tightly.

She doesn't pull away for a long time, and when she does her eyes are still afraid. "Why were you fighting?" she whispers anxiously. "Are you going to leave?"

Lincoln reaches for her and she comes quickly, nestling into his arms like a little baby bird. "No, Maze," he whispers as he presses a kiss into her hair. He meets Margo's eyes and she lets him put his other arm around her and hold her. "Mama and I love each other," he continues softly, "and we would never, _ever_ leave you. Okay?"

"_They_ left," Maisie sniffles into his shirt, and Margo gasps out a sob as she reaches around to hold their daughter with him.

"We know, Maisie," Margo whispers, "but _we're_ not going to, okay? We'll always be here."

After several long minutes Maisie finally lifts her head and looks up at Lincoln. "Can I call you Daddy?" she whispers with another sniffle. " 'Cause…he's maybe never coming back and you'll always be here."

He's powerless to stop several tears from escaping now, and he nods affirmatively. "I'll always be here."

She turns toward Margo and, if possible, looks even sadder. "She made me promise I'd remember who my mommy is," she explains sadly.

"That's okay," Margo assures, smoothing Maisie's hair back from her face and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I like being your Mama." She smiles at him as Maisie snuggles into his chest and he knows they're going to make it, no matter what, because he loves these two more than he ever thought it was possible to love anyone.

"Daddy," Maisie murmurs sleepily into his shirt, "will you tuck me in?"

"Sure thing, baby," he whispers. "Give your Mama a kiss goodnight."

It's twenty minutes later and she drifted off to sleep easily. He has Margo on her back in their bed, whispering how much he loves her and how he'll never, ever leave her either, how all the missed rent in the world, all the angry phone calls possible, couldn't ever tempt him to leave these two.

It's a year later and they're three now, his three girls. He's way too distracted to eat dinner as Maisie makes faces at the baby and dies laughing when she makes her smile. He's got a job at a five-star restaurant downtown as assistant chef, and now Margo can stay home with the girls, doing the same job she's always loved but with her children now. He's taking next Tuesday off as they go to court to officially adopt Maisie after she told them she wanted to have the same last name as her sister. Beale replied with a one word text. Susanna dropped off the face of the earth ten months ago, forfeiting full custody to them within six months. After a long phone conversation with Maisie she agreed to the adoption.

It's three years later and Carter, his first boy, is born a week after Ellen's third birthday. He runs out of the restaurant just as he's about to cook a meal for Brad Pitt, but nothing would keep him from the birth of his boy. Maisie, who's eleven now, and Ellen spend the night with his parents, and the grin on her face when she comes to meet her baby brother is almost overwhelming. She launches herself into Lincoln's arm and says, "Daddy, you're not the only boy now!" They come home two days later to the new house they bought with one room painted blue, and he thinks the blue is an extra blessing because he would have been happy forever with just the pink.

She's thirteen and the wedding announcement comes on a Thursday, right after she gets home from school. He comes home to find her crying in Margo's arms, and she's so confused about how she feels—they haven't heard from her dad in four years and suddenly he's married with a year-old baby boy. He trades off with Margo and sits on the edge of the bed with his daughter, holding her until she's left with small, hiccupping sobs that rip his heart apart. Sometimes he forgets that he wasn't always with her, and he hates to think about all the things he couldn't protect her from. He reminds her how much he and Margo love her, how she is a part of their family as if she was born to them, and eventually she takes a couple calming breaths and is able to come downstairs for dinner. They never hear from her father again.

She's sixteen and going on her first date, and he's a wreck. He knows how boys are, how he used to be, and doesn't want her to _ever_ have anything to do with those kinds of boys. He makes her sit down before she goes and they have an awkward conversation about this is how you operate the pepper spray and _don't_ let him put his hands on anything but your face and your arms and _don't_ go anywhere by yourselves. She blushes and reminds him that she's not that kind of girl, she scares off all the boys anyway because she has such high standards, he can trust her. He's pleasantly surprised when the boy, a shy, quiet baseball player named Colin, comes to the door and shakes his hand and doesn't back down when Lincoln tries to intimidate him, Maisie blushing furiously nearby. She's doesn't come home with her heart broken, and as much as he hates the idea of her loving another man, he'll always be happy when she is.

She's twenty-one and he's walking her down the aisle to hand her off to that boy from her first date. Ellen's a bridesmaid and Carter's an usher. Susanna's here with a new husband, but he only has eyes for Margo, who's crying her eyes out and grinning at him, and he recalls that little girl who scattered rose petals at their own wedding once.

She's twenty-four and he's not just Daddy now—he's _Grandpa_. Another little girl to twist his heart around and give him grief and fill him up with even more love. He presses a kiss into Maisie's hair and stares down at the little pink bundle that lets out a little mewling cry.

Tears fill his eyes as he looks around the hospital room and takes in his girls and _two_ boys now. Wishing he could have seen _her_ when she was this small, wishing he hadn't missed out on her first word and first step and first six years. He lets out a sigh and releases all those years he'll never get back. He's had three times six with her now. Far better six missed years than never having her at all.

Maisie smiles up at him and whispers, "Isn't she beautiful, Daddy?"

He smiles and strokes the little baby's cheek, provoking another tiny cry, and he laughs.

"Just like her Mama, Maze," he murmurs.


End file.
